Source: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com, October 2, 2015
By: Thomas Barlas
The U.S. government wants an entire neighborhood to take health precautions after discovering lead and arsenic contamination, which also threatens the Maurice River, in an area recommended for the federal Superfund cleanup list.
Federal documents say the contamination comes from the former pesticide plant at the Kil-Tone Co. site on East Chestnut Avenue. Federal officials want residents nearby to take precautions — from washing their faces and hands before eating to limiting the time children play in the dirt.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking residents near the site to regularly clean their homes of dust and to remove their shoes before entering their homes, to help reduce the contaminated soil that could be carried into their houses.
Meanwhile, federal officials said surface water contamination from the Kil-Tone site is in the length of the Tarkiln Branch, a Maurice River tributary.
Blanca Roman and her daughter, Bianca, live on the corner of St. Paul and Sixth streets. Their home is less than a block from the Kil-Tone site.
Bianca Roman said the family is worried, especially for children in the neighborhood.
“You worry about them rolling around in it,” she said of the children who play outside in the dirt. “You worry about what it will do to their future.”
Bianca Roman said the family has stopped eating vegetables grown in their backyard — one of the safety recommendations. They’re also trying to abide by the EPA safety recommendations, but said some, such as removing shoes before entering the house, aren’t always practical.
“How do you tell that to guests?” her mother asked.
The possible environmental hazards also appear significant.
The Maurice River is 3.5 miles from the Kil-Tone site. The surface water reached the Tarkiln Branch through a storm-sewer discharge system.
“Elevated concentrations of arsenic and lead have been detected in sediment samples collected along the entire stretch of the Tarkiln Branch to the confluence with the Maurice River,” Kimberly Staiger, the EPA’s on-scene coordinator, wrote in a Sept. 14 letter to City Solicitor Rick Tonetta. “Elevated concentrations of arsenic and lead were also detected in soil samples collected on properties located within the flood plain of the Tarkiln Branch.”
EPA officials said they will take more soil samples starting Monday around the Tarkiln Branch to determine what action is needed.
The EPA on Monday recommended that the property be added to the federal Superfund cleanup list. Sites on the list are eligible for federal funding for long-term permanent cleanup.
A decision on whether the Kil-Tone site makes the list is expected in the spring, EPA spokesman Elias Rodriguez said. New Jersey already has 113 Superfund sites — more than any other state.
The Romans live in a neighborhood with a large Hispanic population. City officials said warning those residents of the Kil-Tone situation is a little difficult because of language barriers.
However, Blanca Roman, who speaks little English and used her daughter as an interpreter, said families were notified via mail from the EPA that was written in both English and Spanish. EPA officials, including some who speak Spanish, also went door to door, she said.
But almost across the street, Leo Bardo Calixto said the EPA notified him and his family about the Kil-Tone situation, but he never received any instructions on how to protect the family from the contamination.
“We’re going on with life as usual,” he said.
Asked if he was concerned about possible health problems, Calixto replied, “No, not really” and said EPA officials said they would cover his property with several inches of clean fill dirt.
Kil-Tone manufactured arsenic-based pesticides from the late 1910s to the late 1930s. The pesticides were sold under trade names including London Purple and Paris Green, and were used to control mosquitoes and other pests in the early 20th century.
Tonetta said the city didn’t know there was a problem at the site until a development project, approved by the city’s Planning Board in April 2014, was underway across Chestnut Avenue from the Kil-Tone property. Contamination was discovered during the development work, he said.
The contamination was discovered during testing by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
“From there, it got bigger and bigger and bigger,” Tonetta said of the area where the arsenic and lead were found.
Tonetta said the subsequent investigation involved interviews with people who lived near the site when Kil-Tone was in operation in 1930s.
“Some people remembered how they would just dump materials into a drain,” he said.
The EPA is also studying property ownership records to determine the possibility of recapturing some of the cleanup costs, he said.
“There may very well be a pocketbook for the EPA to collect money,” Tonetta said.
Kil-Tone sold the property in the 1940s. Subsequent owners included Progresso Foods and a paint company. The property is currently home to a sign-manufacturing company.